Accident to Boeing 777 - 328ER registered F-GSQL operated by Air France on 16/09/2018 at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport (Mauritius)

On the day of the occurrence, flight AF463 between Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport (Val d’Oise) was operated with the Boeing 777 registered F-GSQL. Due to an operating contingency, the aircraft used was not the one initially scheduled and has a cabin configuration which is different to that usually used for this destination. This had an impact on the number of cabin crew, the allocation of passenger seats and their travel class, and disrupted the preparation of the flight and the aircraft, as well as the boarding, generating a substantial workload.

On the application of thrust, an in-flight retail trolley located at the front of the aircraft came out of its stowage slot, rolled down the right-hand aisle of the cabin and came to a stop at seat 39J. The trolley injured eight passengers along the way. The passenger sitting in seat 25K who was leaning over into the aisle, suffered a serious face injury. A passenger who was a doctor attended to the injured passenger. During a teleconference call from the cockpit between this doctor and an EMS dispatcher on the ground, it was decided that the passenger's condition did not require the aircraft to divert and that she would be taken care of on arrival at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

The investigation found that this accident occurred in the context of an unusually high workload for the cabin crew during the pre-take off ground phase which resulted in a member of the cabin crew not detecting that the in-flight retail trolley was not locked in its slot. The investigation was unable to determine whether the position of the locking tabs for the in-flight retail trolley had been properly checked or whether the trolley had been handled after the check.